December 01, 2021: Does Holding on to A Little Bit of Ourselves Make a Big Difference in Our Lives?

In the first Book of Corinthians, the Apostle Paul is addressing many issues with the church in Corinth. One of the issues was tolerating sin with other believers and themselves. He uses the example of "leaven and unleavened bread".

1 Corinthians 5: 6-8

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

In this particular use of the example of leaven and unleavened bread, the Apostle Paul is illustrating sin in one's life. "A little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough...Get rid of the old yeast so that you may be a new unleavened batch".

What Paul is saying here is that even a little yeast, or sin, can affect the whole batch of dough. The same is true with our own lives. Allowing a little sin in our lives can affect the whole part of us. We must be willing to "die to self" completely. We are no longer in control of our own life. We should have "completely surrendered" all of ourselves to our Lord and God. We must become as the "unleavened bread", without any old yeast, or sin.

Galatians 2: 20

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Our "old self" with the old leaven (sin) still in us, can keep us from having a continued communion with God. God is a holy God, and He will not keep Himself near in our lives if we are still holding on to our sin. That is why our daily time with God must be a time of confessing and surrendering to Him to always keep us in close communion with Him at all times. It is through our confessing of our sins daily that we know, in our hearts, that God is with us.

1 John 1: 9

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Let us always remember what the Apostle Paul says in verses 19-20 in chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 6: 19-20

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.

PERSONNAL COMMENT:

We are no longer our own, we belong to God completely. Let us begin living our lives holy to our God confessing and surrendering to Him daily. Let us draw near to Him as He draws near to us.